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Moldova is the poorest country in Europe, and poverty means vulnerability. Sometimes, as noted in yesterday’s post, a family will either abort or abandon children that they can’t afford to keep. So Moldova’s orphanages are filled with children who are not truly orphans, but are simply abandoned. Being the poorest country in Europe, and having the responsibility for so many orphans means that the orphanages cannot do more than simply keep their little charges alive. When an orphan reaches the age of eighteen, they are given a small amount of money and a bus ticket to the nearest city. Traffickers know this and often cruise the bus stops by the orphanages looking for young girls to whisk away into a life of prostitution. And, having no other life skills, they really have no other alternative.

Sometimes, in exchange for money, the orphanage directors will cooperate with the traffickers by letting them know when girls will be released. And sometimes, the orphanage directors, themselves, become traffickers, opening the orphanage as a child brothel, and selling the girls into a life of prostitution when they are released.

Rescuing these girls from prostitution is the focus of several ministries here in Moldova. In Trans Istria we saw the construction site of a church that wants to house girls, teach them life skills and job skills, and help get them started into a better life. The church doesn’t currently have enough money to finish the building project, so they are using the help of missionaries who come as volunteer help. Even if you are not skilled in construction, but you want to help, any extra pair of hands is very gratefully put to work in various ways, and for whatever length of time you can come. You can contact us through the GoMissions website for more information.

Our visit yesterday to Irena and Olga, the mother and daughter team that works in the Pregnancy Crisis Center in Chisinau is another organization that helps these at-risk girls. Orphans and the rescue of prostitutes is not the primary focus.

Stella’s Voice is a ministry based in the UK that also rescues at-risk girls. You can contact them on their website for ways that you can help their ministry help these girls.

Traditionally, law enforcement (worldwide) has jailed and prosecuted the prostitutes, themselves. But the fact is that few prostitutes choose that lifestyle. The ones who do choose to go into prostitution have all been molested as children, so that they have come to believe that it is only through sex that they have value. Therefore, it is not only wrong to jail prostitutes, but also a waste of resources, since it only effects the supply in a very small way without diminishing the demand at all.

The only country in the world that has been able to drastically reduce prostitution (by 80 percent) is Sweden. Instead of prosecuting the prostitutes, Sweden prosecutes the johns—and does so publicly. In fact, anyone traveling to, from, or through Sweden for the purpose of buying the services of prostitutes (sex tourism) is jailed and denounced in the Swedish media.

Unfortunately, Moldova is far too poor to address the problem of prostitution at all. But the western countries to which these girls are trafficked do have the resources. Any country that really wants to help these girls, or at the very least to stop prostitution within their borders, should follow the Swedish model. I suspect that the problem is that most politicians don’t care about prostitutes and/or the police are in some way involved (financially or by receiving favors). My criticism is not limited to the countries of Western Europe, but worldwide, including my own. It is within the power of our government to stop prostitution. But do they want to. America, do you want to stop prostitution?

This morning we went to visit a mother and daughter team (Olga and Irena) who help girls with “problem pregnancies.” In other words, they help girls who find themselves unhappily pregnant to make the right decision about their babies and their lives. Irena pointed out how unusual their partnership is in Moldova, where mothers and daughters are frequently at odds with each other. The generation gap in Moldova is wider than the Grand Canyon. But through Jesus Christ, they are as much sisters as they are mother and daughter.

Besides helping young girls, they also help married women who find themselves pregnant with a baby they can’t afford to keep (most Moldovan families who cannot afford to care for their children either abort or abandon them). They also help fathers and at-risk families, and do post-abortion counseling. And they help the children born as a result of their efforts with a daycare program.

Irena, the daughter, translated for her mother, who told us about how she became involved with this ministry. Olga had been working in an important, high-paying job when God called her to this work. She was able to do both for a while and then the director of the ministry left, and she was asked to take over the directorship. Olga thought and prayed long and hard about it because it would mean giving up her apartment (owned by her company), and taking a dramatic cut in pay. She asked four people to pray about it, and all four came back with the same answer as she had gotten: that she must take the directorship. Then Olga asked God for four very specific signs, and she got all four signs. So she made a deal with God: “If I do my part, then You’ve got to do Your part and help me out.” I laughed at that point and told her what my pastor in Texas says: “If your ministry doesn’t scare you, then it’s not from God.” She laughed and said, “Then it was definitely from God.”

So Olga took over the directorship, and the money came in as needed. Of course, the most important thing that they do is to introduce each person that enters the center to Jesus. Only Jesus can help them to have a better life.

Now they have bigger needs. Olga has big dreams: to open a house for unwed mothers, with a training center in which they can teach job skills as well as baby care. In addition there would be a day care center and counseling center. They would also like to open a school for the children, the first of whom are now almost school aged. I love the faith to dream big like that, and I pray that they will find the funding to make their dream a reality.

If you have it in your heart to help this ministry, please make a donation. Any amount would be so greatly appreciated! You can make a tax-deductible donation on the European Faith Missions website. At the same time, please send me an e-mail (abrown@europeanfaithmissions.com) to let me know that you want your donation to go to the Pregnancy Crisis Center of Chisinau in Moldova. Do good because God is good!

I have a friend that I often joke with, saying, “I’m God’s favorite kid.” And the banter goes like this:

I’m God’s favorite kid because I’m the most blessed!

Oh, no you’re not! I’m His favorite because I’m more blessed!

To which I reply: “No, I’m more blessed because He gave me you for a friend!”

And she replies: “You’re right, you are more blessed than me!”

Today was one of those days when I truly feel like I’m God’s favorite. Of course, He doesn’t have favorites, but today it just felt that way.

After breakfast we met at the church and took a bus up the mountain to pray for Sofia from up there. About 70 people from the local church joined us. The participation of local people in these prayers for the capital cities is significant.

The mountain was covered with snow and there were people skiing and sledding all over the mountain top. Nevertheless, it was sunny and much warmer on the mountain than back in Sofia. So from our perch overlooking the city we prayed, proclaimed, and worshiped Jesus, the Lord of Sofia. And we sealed the prayers with Holy Communion.

When we returned to Sofia we went to the Parliament building to pray for the new government, whoever they turn out to be (as you may recall, the government all resigned three days ago when our team arrived in town). A policeman came to see what we were doing, and when we explained that we were praying for the government, he shrugged and walked off. Several minutes later another policeman approached. Two of our group walked over to meet him so that prayers could continue uninterrupted. One of them, a pastor, explained what we were doing and asked the policeman if he could pray for him. The policeman shrugged, but didn’t say no, so my pastor friend and the other man prayed for him. The policeman remained skeptical. He probably thought that we were crazy, but harmless, so he walked off.

Next to Parliament is the university, so we went to pray there. Our host, Bill, had given some of us Bulgarian New Testaments, so one girl decided to do an important prophetic act and bury the Word of God right there on campus. The only problem is that we didn’t have a shovel or any other kind of digging implements. So we had to find ground soft enough to dig up with a stick. The rest of us laughed about how silly this looked, and cracked jokes about how the Christian bookstores should sell shovels, too. But once it was buried, we got back to the work of praying, and one topic for prayer at the university was abortion. Bulgaria has 3 abortions for every live birth—imagine that! Together with the 3rd highest suicide rate in the world, no wonder the population is shrinking.

After all this, some of us were very hungry, having not had any lunch—me included. There was a lot of discussion about where to eat, when to eat, and whether to eat together. In the end, some went back to the hostel, while others went to eat. Bill offered to take me to a big toy store. I had told him that I always get my grandson a bear from every new country I visit, but I hadn’t had any luck finding a suitable bear in Bulgaria yet. All the bears I had seen so far had scary eyes. I can’t give my grandson a bear with scary eyes! So we went to the toy store, and I found a great bear right away.

Then Bill asked me what I wanted to do next. I told him that I hadn’t had lunch, so I wanted some dinner. He was very pleased when I said that I wanted to have some typical Bulgarian food. So he called Vasha, his wife, and they discussed where to take me. She was just getting off work, so she would be joining us. They took me to a place that was typically Bulgarian in décor, in food, and in music—wonderful!

They asked me a few times what I was hungry for, but I just insisted on typical foods. Bill was so happy for the opportunity to share some of his favorite dishes from childhood. He insisted on getting a few dishes to share, knowing that it would be far more food than we could possibly eat. Vasha told me that later I would probably see people dancing the Horo. Which I did! There was a birthday party across the room, and when the band played the Horo music, the women all got up, laced arms, and danced in a circle.

I have written a few stories of actual people who have been trafficked (in both “Look, Listen, Love” and “Laughing in My Dreams”). Those were people that my friend, Clara, the pastor’s wife in Romania told me about. Buck and Nadia work with women in prostitution, and they have been telling me about the women they know.

The first time the issue of human trafficking came to their attention was in the small town three hours from Sofia, where they were pastoring a church. The head of the children’s program at their church came to them with the desire to tell her story. She had gone with a friend to Macedonia because of the promise of a job, and their documents were confiscated and they were told that they would be prostitutes. She was a virgin and lost her virginity to a stranger in his car. Her friend ran away, but was caught, and as the other girls watched, they broke both her legs. Amazingly, the girl did eventually manage to get away, but now, years later, she still struggles with her past.

They said that they tried not to look shocked, but they were. They had never heard of such a thing. But little by little they became aware of the magnitude of the problem. Often, even if the girl manages to get away, the police are reluctant to do anything about the trafficking. The police and local officials are often involved either financially or as non-paying customers. And the girls are mostly foreign and without legal identity documents—they are essentially non-persons. So even non-corrupt police would rather ignore their complaints than get into the massive legal hassles required to help undocumented persons.

When they began working with prostitutes these stories of trafficking became more and more common. One girl told how she had been living with her grandmother and helping her, but she needed to return to her own home about an hour away. She ran into an old friend who invited her to have coffee. Over coffee she told him that she needed to go back to their town, and he offered her a ride. On the way they stopped at a coffee shop, and she didn’t think anything unusual about it except that her brought her a soda that was already opened. Back on the road, she began to feel strange and physically paralyzed. He had slipped her the date rape drug. They went to her house, got her identity card, and he took her to Macedonia. Because of the relaxed borders of the European Union, all he had to do was show both their identity cards to the border guard. Then she saw him receive money for her, and she was put into a brothel and told that this would be her work from now on. She became pregnant in the line of her work and was severely beaten for refusing to have an abortion. Somehow she got away and into a halfway house for girls coming out of prostitution. She said that whenever she looks at her baby, she tries not to remember how he was conceived.

The stories go on and on about husbands who send their wives out to work as prostitutes, and husbands who don’t like for their wives to work as prostitutes, but tolerate it because they like the money. Many of the girls cope by pretending that they are a different person when they are working, and trying not to be present in their bodies during the act. But these are only temporary and imperfect fixes. There is nothing in the world like becoming a truly new creation in Christ Jesus.

No matter where you live, there is human trafficking going on in your country, and probably in your state, and possibly in your own town. Check out the slavery map: http://www.slaverymap.org/.

God is good. God is love. Jesus is the ultimate expression of God’s love for humankind. Love cannot allow this evil and injustice to continue against approximately 30 million people worldwide. Love demands a response. What are you going to do about it?

As I wrote in The Scars of Communism (https://europeanfaithmissions.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/the-scars-of-communism/), just before coming on this trip to Hungary and Romania, I opened the box of books that I had gotten out of storage after a year, and the book at the very top was “Tortured for Christ” by Richard Wurmbrand. The things suffered by Pastor Wurmbrand and the rest of the Underground Church really moved me. After all, I could have been born in a Communist country, and had to suffer for my faith, too.

Today there was a conference for the seniors of the church, at which Pastor H. Koraćs Gėza spoke. I was told that I would have about five minutes to speak to them. So of course I prayed about it, and here’s what I said:

Looking out here at all the gray hair, I am aware that many of you and your parents kept your faith in Christ under the oppressive rule of the atheistic Communists. I have two things to say to you: First, I am deeply sorry that my country believed the lies of the Communists and did nothing to help you. Secondly, I know that someday you will trade your silver crowns for gold crowns. I am here to honor you for your faithful service to your Lord and mine.

To the young people here I say: learn from these elders, and share the love of Christ with everyone you know.

And finally, I would like to thank Pastor Gėza for coming. It is an honor to meet you.

When Pastor Gėza returned to the platform, he observed that Christianity had actually flourished and grown under Communist oppression. He said that Christianity now faces a far more dangerous enemy in the form of complacency. I believe he’s right.

It is the danger of complacency in Eastern Europe is that it is following the same pattern that makes Western Europe such a difficult mission field. Complacency has caused Western Europe to evolve from nominal Christianity through religious disconnection, cynicism, and xenophobia to become the secular, materialistic, humanistic, hedonistic, nihilistic, hopeless, suicidal people they’ve become, seeking answers in drugs and alcohol, Eastern Philosophies, Witchcraft, and Satanism. Is it any wonder that abortion and human trafficking thrives in such an environment? In Switzerland it is now possible to request physician-assisted suicide without any physical illness.

The most frightening thing of all is that the United States is following the unfortunate pattern of Europe.

What does complacency look like? Complacency looks like Christianity, but lacks the power of the Holy Spirit, or as the Apostle Paul put it: “having a form of godliness but denying its power,” (2 Timothy 3:5). Complacency seeks answers and help through human means instead of looking to God as the Source of all things. Complacency seeks its own comfort instead of God’s way.

When Jesus says, “Follow Me” Complacency answers, “But the food there is gross! I can’t sleep on the floor! There’s no electricity! No internet! No phone signal!” (Matthew 8:19-20).

Complacency makes all sorts of excuses for not following Jesus, and some of them seem appropriate and valid. But there are missionaries all around the world who have said yes to Jesus even though it meant leaving family responsibilities, saying goodbye to family, going into danger, eating disgusting food, sleeping on the floor, without electricity, internet or phone.

But Complacency is worse than that. Complacency doesn’t want to rock the boat by bringing Jesus into the school or the workplace. Complacency believes in the separation of church and state. Complacency won’t even talk about Jesus at parties with friends, for fear of offending someone.

Because of these attitudes, Jesus is no longer welcome in our schools or workplaces; Biblical Christianity has no say in lawmaking; and political correctness has become more important in American society than the salvation of souls. Those people that you’re so worried about offending need to hear the Good News that Jesus died for them. And the person you know with the hardest heart is someone who desperately needs Jesus.

Jesus was meek and gentle, and offensive to the people who rejected Him and His free offer of salvation. He never backed down from telling the truth. He is our Perfect Example, and like Him, we need to be ready to “offend” people with the truth. But to do that, we’ve got to step out of our comfort zone. We’ve got to give up comfortable Complacency. We’ve got to pick up our cross and follow Him, even when that leads us away from family and friends. And to do that we’ve got to trust God.

Here’s one last thought: Have you ever read the list of the people who are going to hell in Revelation 21:8? “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars —they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.” Look who leads the list: not the murderers, not idolaters, but the cowardly! Many times throughout the Bible we are encouraged to be strong, bold, and courageous. Jesus said, “If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels,” (Mark 8:38).